Help with a Course Outline - Music and Liturgy, History and Contemp. Issues
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    I have been asked to submit a proposal to teach a course in the Spring.
    The venue is the diocesan lay pastoral leadership program - so the students are adult lay leaders.

    Class is 3 sessions, 3ish hours each. There's a half-way break in class time, so it could be thought of as 6 sessions of an hour each.

    To cover:
    - the history of liturgy
    - contemporary practice (what you should be doing)

    It's very broad, and I can probably take it any direction I want to.

    For history, I want to give a sketched out overview, along with a few interesting party anecdotes, and a flavor of the music from different periods.
    For practical issues, basically cover the musical structure of the liturgy, where things are, available contemporary resources, etc etc.

    I have a semester to prep, but I need to submit a proposed syllabus within the next couple weeks.

    Any thoughts? Ideas?
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Congratulations! I have no doubt that your presentation will be exemplary.
    I have some materials which I have written for use in our courses here at UST that I could send you if you want to send me your address. You could use or adapt them as you see fit.

    On the other hand, I gather that your's is to be a general course covering all sacred liturgical music up to our time and include more that just chant. The materials which I mention above have been conceived for chant courses. You be the judge. These may or may not be helpful to you.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    I'll take whatever help I can get. I want to focus on chant, but obviously it's a bit of everything.

    adam.michael.wood@gmail.com
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    OK. I'll have to mail these to you because there are aspects of them, such as musical examples and illustrations, that aren't on the electronic versions. Would you like to send me your address?
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    I PMed you. Thanks!
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    I've been reading a book about the whole of the liturgy during the Middle Ages?

  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Name of book?
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    A Sense of the Sacred: Roman Catholic Worship in the Middle Ages by James Monti, who more notably wrote The King's Good Servant, but God's first
    Thanked by 3M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen Adam Wood
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Here's my current draft syllabus.

    https://github.com/adammichaelwood/music-liturgy-class/blob/master/syllabus.md

    Thoughts?
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    This looks awfully good, Adam.
    You've bitten off quite a bit, but it should be most rewarding - for you and your class.
    It seems very well organised, with an (dare I say the word?) organic flow.
    Thanked by 2Adam Wood rich_enough
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,315
    I like it.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Adam,

    Here's a book title you should include in your optional reading (at the very least): Papal Legislation on Sacred Music by Hayburn, and published by Roman Catholic Books.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • davido
    Posts: 943
    You could utilize the BBC sacred music video series. Not distinctly catholic, but it covers all the history, let's you hear the music, and shows the churches in which it was sung. Very professionally done.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Thanks! I had forgotten all about that series, but I remember it being fantastic.
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,048
    Two other books you may want to consider (I'd guess you're familiar with these already but just in case):

    Catholic Music through the Ages: Balancing the Needs of a Worshipping Church by Edward Schaefer

    Sacred Treasure by Joseph P. Swain. (Amazon listing here.) Dr. Mahrt was impressed by the book:
    "Joseph Swain is among the rare scholars able to make a cogent, compelling case based upon the intrinsic qualities of music, without relying upon highly technical descriptions available only to trained musicians. The trained musician will find much that is new and enlightening here, but the pastor, liturgist, theologian, choir singer, and layperson will be able to follow the argument as well."
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • eft94530eft94530
    Posts: 1,577
    When you talk about Sacrosanctum Concilium
    be sure to use the non-plagiarised version found in

    http://www.Adoremus.org/AdoremusSpring2015.pdf
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    Here's my current draft syllabus.


    I give it the retired teacher stamp of approval. :-)
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen Adam Wood
  • francis
    Posts: 10,825
    My two go to books

    The papal legislation on sacred music -hayburn
    The mass: a study of the Roman liturgy - fortescue

    You can see them on Amazon I believe
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    I can second rich_enough's appreciation of "Catholic Music Through the Ages" as a good presentation of the history of Catholic liturgical music. On the other hand, I found approximately 250 typos and minor errors in it, so it doesn't speak well for the editing.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • CGM
    Posts: 699
    And there's a lovely little leaflet book called Music in the Liturgy, by Ben Whitworth, that's well worth your time. (I think I found it through someone else posting it on this forum somewhere!) This is a short, simple, bite-sized description of music in the liturgy over the ages, and if nothing else, it would make a lovely summary/parting gift for your students. Or you could use it as your text, and they'd thank you for something inexpensive, portable, and wonderfully useful.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
Add a Comment